The Christmas Problems of Nyphadora Lupin
by MuggleBeene
Summary: Nyphadora Lupin didn't die at The Battle of Hogwarts, but that doesn't mean her life is easy. Dating, especially, is not going well. What happens she gets a visit from Father Christmas? Story written for the 2013 Teachers' Lounge Holiday Exchange. Happy Christmas, Snarky64!


**The Christmas Problems of Nyphadora Lupin**

_**Story written for the 2013 Teachers' Lounge Holiday Exchange. Happy Christmas, Snarky64!**_

_December, 2001_

Nyphadora (for the love of Merlin call me Tonks) Lupin had a problem.

That was an understatement. Actually, she had several problems. She was the widowed wife of a werewolf; that in and of itself was enough to make some people shun her, to give her one of 'those' looks in the shops. That was actually, in the grand scheme of things, not too bad of an issue. She was used to dealing with that sort of person, especially as she usually ignored them. Compound that with the fact that she was a single mother with an almost-four-year-old son that had inherited her metamorphagus abilities and tended to exhibit them at the worst possible moments, not to mention absolutely massive and messy bouts of accidental magic, almost always with fire, and some would consider that a problem. Then there was her job, or, if she was honest, what was left of it. The Auror department had required her to go through a battery of tests after the Battle of Hogwarts, mostly with the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. Nobody could figure out exactly how she'd survived. By all rights she should have been dead along with her husband, but somehow she'd found herself lying on the cold stone floor of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, staring up at the ceiling. Even after the Unspeakables had cleared her the Auror department was unsure of her, as if they expected her to belatedly drop dead right in the middle of an interview with a suspect about nicking things from one of the Diagon Alley shops. The new recruits gave her a wide berth, especially the ones who were students when Voldemort snuffed it. They'd seen her, they knew she should have been dead along with her husband and Colin Creevey and Fred Weasley. All of her partners had requested transfers, new partners or in the case of one arsehole, had refused to partner with her at all. That guy called her the Zombie.

Zombie, that's the term she remembered as she stood in front of the mirror, towel wrapped around her chest and torso, watching the steam dissipate. After a deep breath she took a good look at her face and gripped the sides of the sink with both hands.

"I sure don't feel like a zombie. Harry sure put that idiot in his place. Didn't know I was dating Harry at the time. His fault if he's got the night shift for the rest of time, not mine."

"Harry?"

The little voice came from behind her, around the loo door that was open slightly to let out the steam. She turned and shook her head at her son. "No, Teddy, Harry isn't here. You'll see him this weekend on Boxing Day. Only six more sleeps."

"How many more sleeps 'til Chrismas?"

"Five." She reached out and tousled her son's hair, which caused him to make a disgusted face and move out of reach. "Remember, Teddy, you have to be good or else..."

Teddy crossed his arms. "I know, Harry said if'n I'm not a good boy Father Chrismas won't bring me a toy broom."

_A toy broom? I'll kill him. _ She smiled, so as not to send her son off into one of his fits about a broom. "We'll see, Teddy. You have to be good. Now why don't you go play with your toys until Granny comes over, ok?"

"Ok." With a shrug of his shoulders Teddy cheerfully left the loo, off in search of his Muggle cars that he was so fascinated with, ones that would probably end up in bed with him later on that night.

_And there's my other problem; dating Harry wasn't a bad idea, it was a clean breakup. Dating your son's godfather and breaking up with him? Not such a brilliant one._ She turned back to the mirror, picked up her wand from the ledge and quickly dried her hair, turning the shade just a bit more chocolate brown. _Chocolate. Oh Merlin, not that again, not those feelings. _ "Why does this happen every time I go on a date?"

Her reflection didn't answer. As always.

Nymphadora Lupin had a problem. She had a blind date that her mum had set up, and she'd agreed to go on it.

XMAS – XMAS – XMAS – XMAS

One minute into the date and Tonks thought there was a possibility. Five minutes into the date and she wasn't sure, but decided to give it a shot. Ten minutes into the date and she wondered if things would go better after a glass of wine. Twenty minutes into the date and she was trying to do the maths to determine how much she could drink to make it tolerable and still be able to Floo back home without splinching herself.

He was, if she was honest, a perfectly nice man. He was a bit older than her, two or three years, which was nothing compared to...brilliant. More memories. Perhaps that was the problem; even though the man physically didn't remind her of Remus, she could see a lot of his qualities. The man was studious (some theoretical magical healing research department), dressed conservatively, had nice hair, nice manners, a wonderful job at St. Mungo's where her mum had met him at one of her charity things, but most of all he was...boring. Deadly, utterly, completely boring. It was obvious that he was nervous as he chattered on like a hopped-up pixie, but after the first glass of wine she realized that she was just listening. All the man did was talk about himself.

During the second glass of wine (not a full one, thank you) Tonks had enough. She was not going to let the brand new dress and shoes go to waste. If she had gone to all the trouble to dress up and go out, she was going to have fun.

"Bertrand, that sounds fascinating, but let's cut to the chase here. Do you know anything about me, besides the fact that you know my mum?"

He stammered for a bit, obviously uncomfortable.

"That's what I thought." Tonks reached forward, swallowed the rest of the wine in her glass and leaned forward. "Let me fill you in, Bertie. I'm an Auror, sort of, recently they've got me doing minor stuff and training new recruits on stealth and such but it's kind of a cock-up since I usually use my own skills and they can't do that. I'm a metamorphagus, smart chappie like you knows what that is, of course. Then there's my history. Widowed wife of a werewolf, son who's almost four, so the picture-perfect package deal. Oh, and I dated Harry Potter for a while, you know him, right? Heard of him? Yeah, it went ok, but he's still kinda protective even if we aren't dating since he's my son's godfather. Put you off yet? No? How about this one; nobody knows why I'm alive because I should have died at Hogwarts along with my husband when he did. Ready to take me home to mum and dad yet?"

Bertrand stood up, mumbled some things, pulled a pocketwatch out of his waistcoat, mumbled something, put a few Galleons on the table and hurriedly made his way out the door.

Tonks sighed, looked at her watch and motioned for the waitress. He'd lasted forty minutes. "Happy Christmas, Bertie."

The overly full glass of wine levitated in front of Tonks and settled slowly to the table. She turned to tell the waitress that it was too much when she saw someone out of the corner of her eye slide over Bertrand's empty chair and sit down.

"He ran like hell; what'd ya do, the armpit noises?"

Her mouth dropped open in shock, but then all she could do was laugh. Only three people in the world knew she could make those sounds, and two of them, her father and her husband, were dead. The red-headed man sitting across from her, in dragonhide with a blue hand-knitted scarf around his neck, he was the only one who could know. He should know, since they both got detention with McGonagall the last time she'd done it in public. "Only you, Weasley. Only you. When'd you get in, Chuck?"

"Early this morning. It wasn't the armpit thing, was it?"

"Nah, I just told him the truth." She leaned over as if to whisper a secret. "Don't tell anybody but I've sort of got a past."

Charlie feigned shock. "No! Really? A delicate flower like you? I am shocked." He picked up his beer and took a large drink. "Seriously, though, what were you doing out with a guy like that? Looks like the kind to stand in the shops and ask about where all the ingredients came from in his sweets."

"Mum." She rolled her eyes. "In a moment of weakness I let Mum set me up. You should have heard her. 'Oh Nymphadora, he's a very nice man, I think it would be good for you to get out a bit, especially after Harry.' I must have been Imperiused."

"Harry, right." He paused. "You do know..."

"He proposed to Ginny. Yeah, he told me when he came over to spend time with Teddy, they're off somewhere celebrating. It's ok, really. I think I was sort of a..."

"Don't." Charlie shook his head. "Don't say anything. You don't need to."

"Thanks. I am happy for them, though. Kid deserves it."

"So do you." Charlie nodded seriously. "Just not with a bloke like..."

"Bertrand. Bertrand Greenpoole."

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know. Nymphadora Greenpoole has a ring to it."

"Piss off and _don't_ call me that." She took another drink of wine. "I did the maths, if I down the rest of this it'll be at least an hour before I can apparate."

"Amateur."

"I have a kid."

"Amateur parent."

She gave him a two-finger salute. "What about you, Chuckles? I'm sure Molly's set you up a time or two. Can you beat my record? From hello to out the door in forty minutes."

"Never let Mum set me up." Charlie shook his head. "Wouldn't work."

"Oh come on now, Molly can be rather persistent. She and Mum could have a 'guilt off' and we'd all end up...scratch that, I don't want to think about that. Seriously, how did you get out of that? I need to know so I can stop ending up with blokes like old Bertie."

"Well..." He leaned forward. "I won't ask, because I know you can keep a secret. This one's big, though. Nobody knows."

"You're gay."

"For women, absolutely. No, my dearest Dora, I couldn't go on those dates Mum wanted to set up because I was married."

Tonks pursed her lips, nodded, and seemed very serious. "That's very responsible of you. Dating whilst married is rather frowned upon. Nice try; really, though, how'd you get out of it?"

Charlie smacked his lips together, nodded and then reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He dug in the back part, underneath business cards and other things until he found what he was looking for; a faded, creased Muggle photograph of him and a dark-haired woman in the mountains. He handed it to her. "This is Irina."

Tonks took the picture, expecting to see George in a wig or something similar, but the photograph stopped the smirk on her face. "You married a Muggle?"

"Yeah. It worked for a while until it didn't." The drink of beer was much longer than previously. "I never could work up the nerve to tell her I was a wizard, let alone that I work with dragons. I told her I had a job up in the mountains, something like a, uh, um, Muggle nature boffin. She went with it for a while but each time I came back to her things were off. Distant. The last time she told me it wasn't working and she was leaving."

"What'd you do?"

"What else could I do? I let her leave." He turned in his chair and motioned for another round. "Having her stay meant telling her why I was gone, and since she didn't believe me what good was telling her the truth?"

"You could have made it work, Chuck."

"Maybe. I guess. Probably not, though. We got married fast."

"Faster than what we had planned?" Tonks raised and eyebrow and smiled at him. "Who was the one who wanted to ditch the Express back home and ride a broom to Gretna Green?"

"Not quite that fast." He ducked his head for a moment, rubbed his head and then looked at her. "I still say it could have worked." He looked at his watch and made a grimace. "Bloody hell, that late? You take my beer. Sorry, Dorrie, I'm due at Shell Cottage. Bill's got some crazy thing that he and George are working on for the shop, some Christmas thing, and I was just supposed to stop by here and pick up some food and beer. I'll stop by before I head back. Good to see you, Dorrie."

With that he was gone.

Tonks went to drain the rest of her wineglass and that was when she saw it; the picture of Charlie and his ex-wife. He'd left it on the table. She stared at the photo while she drank Charlie's beer, staring mostly at his smile, noticing that it didn't quite reach his eyes. Not knowing what else to do she put it in her purse, went to pay for the drinks and found that Charlie had paid for everything. Not trusting herself, since she hadn't had that much drink in ages, she Flooed home.

XMAS – XMAS – XMAS – XMAS

As expected, her Mum was up waiting for her. Unexpectedly, though, every light in the house was on, Christmas music was blaring out of the wireless and Teddy's voice could be heard singing from the kitchen.

"Mum?" Tonks brushed off the Floo powder and realized that her mother had paid no attention to the fact that she had returned back to the house. Andromeda sat in the large, overstuffed chair across the room, reading as if nothing whatsoever was going on. "Mum!" Again, there was no response, so Tonks went over and tapped her mum on the shoulder, causing Andromeda to startle, shriek and the book to fly in the air, landing halfway up the Christmas tree.

"Nymphadora! You scared me to death, don't _do_ that!" She exhaled deeply and then fixed her daughter with a glare. "And what are you doing home at this hour? Shouldn't you be on your date?"

"Shouldn't you be watching your grandson? What on earth is going on here? Teddy? Teddy!"

"MUMMY!" Teddy's voice rang out in the kitchen, followed by the pounding of bare feet across the wood floor, ending in his throwing his arms around his mum's legs. "Hi Mum guess what I'm a Chrismas elf that's why I gots on a pillow case cuz I'm a Father Chrismas elf I'm makin' us biscuits in the kitchen! Wanna help?"

"Oh dear." Andromeda gave Teddy a conspiratorial glance, as if the jig was up. She turned to her daughter. "I swear I did not know about the biscuits."

"That's because you had on a soundproofing spell, Mum." Tonks shook her head. "So wait, you knew about the Christmas Elf part?"

"Oh yes, but he did the ears all by himself." Andromeda seemed rather pleased. "Show her, Edward."

Teddy stepped forward, moved the Father Christmas hat aside, and proudly displayed his ears, morphed to look just like a house elf's ears.

"Brilliant. Brilliant." Tonks sank into the cushions of the sofa and put her arms out towards her son. "The ears _are_ brilliant, Teddy, but is there a mess in the kitchen?"

"Mmm-hmmm!" Teddy nodded and snuggled into her. "Granny can clean it with her wand and you'd never know!"

"He's my only grandchild, Nymphadora. I'm allowed to spoil him." Andromeda winked at Teddy.

XMAS – XMAS – XMAS – XMAS

Christmas went by in a blur. Teddy woke up at four in the morning, only returning to bed after Tonks threatened him with not opening his presents until Boxing Day. He relented until six, when he couldn't stand it any longer and jumped into bed with his mum, rattling off at high speed all the things Father Christmas had left under the tree. Once she'd found her slippers and her dressing gown she let him lead her by the hand to the tree, took down his stocking and watched as he tore through all the packages and presents like Ron Weasley at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Luckily she'd remembered her mum's spell, the one that wrote down the gifts and who they were from in a little book the moment he tore into the paper. She'd forgotten that spell the year before and had addressed very generic thank you notes.

Much to Teddy's delight, and her dismay, there was a toy broom for him under the tree. A quick glance at the book beside her on the sofa didn't say it was from Harry, though; instead it was from Harry and Ginny. She knew that would lead to a rather awkward conversation with Teddy later, the fact that Harry and Ginny were getting married.

"Mum, lookit, lookit, Mummy!" Teddy held up a book. "Whatisit?"

"Slower, Teddy, speak slower, all your words are running together. Let me see." He handed her the book and she looked over at the spelled present book. "This is a photo album, you know, like the ones we look at that have pictures of your Daddy. It's from Grandpa Lyall. We'll see him at New Year's."

"Can...I...put...pictures...in...it?"

"Not that slow, but thank you for talking slower. Yes, you can."

"Great! I can show Granny later today!"

He jumped up, took the book from her and ran off into the room she called her office. The flat wasn't big enough for an actual office, it was technically another bedroom, but since she didn't need it she'd turned it into a makeshift office. Thankfully Teddy's project of putting pictures in his book gave her a break, one that provided the desperately needed cup of tea.

She was almost through with the cup of tea when Teddy came back in, proudly carrying his book. "Look at it wif me, Mummy. Please?"

"Of course, come on up, pixie."

"Don't call me that. That's for lil kids."

"Sorry. Come on up."

Teddy crawled onto the sofa and snuggled under his mum's arm as she opened the book on her lap, balancing the cup of tea in the other hand. "Let's see what you've got in here. Ah, there's a picture of Mummy and Daddy. Did you take that from the other photo album? Never mind, it looks good in here. Your Daddy would be very happy that he's on the first page." She turned the page and saw on the left page her Auror badge. "Teddy, what's this doing in here?"

"Needed pictures."

"Um, ok. Did you get that from my purse?"

"Maybe?"

"Ted."

"Uh-huh."

"Ok, well Mummy will have to put that back later. And there's the picture of you and Harry on your last birthday." In the photo Harry had Teddy on his shoulders as they walked in a London park. "He'll like that." She turned the page, started to say something about Harry and Ginny when the words died in her throat; there, staring at her, was the Muggle photo of Charlie Weasley and his ex-wife. "Teddy, why did you put this picture in here?"

"Cuz that's Mummy's friend. I saw the picture of Mummy and that man at Granny's house."

Tonks realized that the picture of her and Charlie, when they were dating at Hogwarts, was still displayed in her mum's house. She'd asked her mum why it was still hanging in the library a few years ago and Andromeda had said that it was one of her favorite pictures, that Tonks looked so happy.

Happy. She was happy with Charlie, but things just changed. Things happened. Life happened. He went to Romania and she stayed in London to attend Auror training. They were just friends. She'd always feel something for him, but it was the past. Too much had changed. She'd married Remus, had Teddy, Remus had died and Charlie had married a Muggle woman. A Muggle woman who stared at her from the motionless photograph in her son's photo album. So much had changed, even if Charlie really hadn't, staying up there in the mountains with his bloody dragons. She had a life in London with Teddy and...and...her mum. That was really it. It had been fun with Harry, but she knew that wouldn't last, she knew that he still loved Ginny, that he was just trying a bit of life before coming to the conclusion that Ginny was really the only woman for him. Tonks knew that, in a way, she was using him, but it felt good, it felt like she was...like she was when she was with Charlie Weasley.

"Mummy? Mummy, you can turn the page."

"Right. Sorry." She turned the page and there was Teddy fishing with his Grandpa Lyall, another picture liberated from one of the photo albums.

A tapping at the window took Tonks' attention away from the photo album, as an owl was waiting for her, an envelope clutched in one claw.

"Mummy, owl mail! I'll get it." Teddy shot off the sofa and ran to the window, pushed a chair over, climbed up and opened the window. The owl flew over and landed on the coffee table, stepping gingerly over the wrapping paper.

"I'll get it, Teddy. What did you learn about owls?"

"They bite. Hard."

"Yes, but the important part is that you have to be gentle. Go get an owl treat." While her son ran off to get an owl treat Tonks took the envelope from the owl, an owl she didn't recognize. After showing

Teddy how to safely give an owl treat and retain all of his fingers she opened up the envelope.

_Dorrie,_

_If it's ok with you I've got a treat for your little man. Send me your reply if I can stop by, and what time. I thought you'd be up since Bill's have been up forever. I also need to retrieve something._

_Charlie_

Tonks scribbled a reply on the back of the letter and sent it off with the owl. "Teddy, we're going to have a guest soon. Do you want to have on your Chudley Cannons underpants when that happens?"

"Is it a girl?"

"No, it's not a girl."

Teddy shrugged and went over to his pile of presents. That was how Charlie Weasley found him moments later after he exited the Floo, playing with his Great Wizards Action Figures in bright orange y-fronts and a t-shirt.

"Hi Dorrie, looks like someone else doesn't like wearing trousers."

Teddy looked up at where the big, deep voice was coming from and his mouth dropped open, his eyes were wide, as FATHER CHRISTMAS WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE IN HIS HOUSE. "MUM!" He ran over and hugged Father Christmas' legs. "Thanks for the great toys!"

Father Christmas, with Charlie Weasley's eyes, smiled at him and patted him on the back. "You're very welcome, Teddy. I found one more present for you. Would you like it?" He knelt down, pulled the black bag over his shoulder and reached in. "Here you go. Happy Christmas."

Teddy took the present, sat down and immediately ripped up the paper, pulling a toy dragon the size of a small dog out of the box. "It's a dragon!"

Charlie nodded. "Not just any dragon, that's a British dragon, a Common Welsh Green. Tickle him under his chin."

Teddy reached forward and almost immediately after touching the dragon on the chin the dragon seemed to come to life, adjusting its shoulders, making a tiny little melodious roar as smoke curled from its nostrils.

Tonks watched as both Teddy and Charlie were enraptured by the toy, both grinning like idiots. She watched Charlie explain how to operate the toy, how if you touched it on the back between the wings it would fly around for a bit, and if you touched it on it's head three times quickly fake flames shot out of its mouth.

As Teddy played with the dragon, running around the room while it hovered over his head, sprouting smoke, Charlie sat on the sofa with Tonks. "Sorry, the ones your size would ruin your flat."

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You didn't have to, you know. Those are brilliant, though. One of your toys?"

"Sort of. George was over to Romania last summer and saw the models we use for trainees, you know, to help them identify the breeds. George made it spit fire, real fire, and after we put that out we started thinking about enchantments and such. They go on sale after Christmas, couldn't get the suppliers to get stuff right, so Teddy's got the first one. The first safe one, anyway. Hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind at all, Father Christmas. Should I sit on your knee and tell you what I want?"

"Yeah, that's Bill's fault. He said the spell'd wear off after a bit, did this for his kids, came down the chimney, all that, but it isn't wearing off." He looked at her directly, not blinking. "And what do you want, Nymphadora?"

"Sometimes I'm not sure." Tonks' voice was uneven, as so much was being said with so little amount of words.

Charlie put his hand on hers. "Tell you what, why don't you come by the Burrow later on? I need to put this to good use while I can, go have fun with Ron an' Hermione's kids. Be awful if the spell stopped and everybody thinks I'm..." He looked over to Teddy and watched him make the dragon spit fake flames on the Severus Snape Great Wizard figure. "Don't want to ruin it for the wee ones."

Tonks nodded. "Ok. If you don't mind. I know Molly won't mind. What about Harry and Ginny?"

"They're in Bermuda. Don't ask. Mum's not pleased." He looked at her. "And do me a favor, just get rid of that picture, will you?"

"You sure?"

He nodded. "Yeah." Charlie stood up, kissed Tonks on the cheek, said goodbye to Teddy and left via Floo.

As soon as he was gone Teddy ran over to his mum, jumped in her lap and hugged her. "Mum, Father Christmas brought me a dragon!"

"Yes, Teddy, he did."

"What'd he get you?"

With a sigh she pulled him into her arms, hugging him tightly. "I'm not sure." She sat back and replayed their conversation in her mind, thought about it all and then exhaled in disgust. "I let him call me Nymphadora!"

XMAS – XMAS – XMAS – XMAS

Tonks sat at the table, eating a second piece of treacle tart since there was an overabundance of it since Harry and Ginny were in Bermuda. She and Andromeda had been subjected to Molly's grievances about her only daughter missing Christmas. Andromeda had been invited along shortly after Tonks had accepted Charlie's invitation to the Burrow, as Molly wanted someone to commiserate with about how children just didn't understand the importance of family being together at the holidays. She'd thrown a look Charlie's way during the mini-tirade, something neither Charlie or Tonks missed. Charlie, as usual, seemed to ignore it but when his mum wasn't looking he winked at Tonks. After she had just taken another bite Percy, sitting next to her, leaned over and kept his voice low.

"Tonks, I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but as a friend I feel it would impolite if I did not inform you. I saw the paperwork before holiday break; they're going to reassign you to the documentation branch. There's been too many recruits complaining about working with..."

She swallowed. Hard. "The zombie. Yeah, I get it. Bloody hell." She let her fork fall onto the plate. "What's next, Percy? Guard duty and weighing visitor's wands?"

"I'm sorry, I thought you should know."

She nodded and gave him a tight-lipped smile. "Appreciate it. Thanks."

For a while she sat there and listened as the Burrow hummed along with holiday happiness. Arthur put on the Celestina Warbeck holiday programme on the wireless, Weasley grandchildren ran around the place, Teddy amongst them with his toy dragon. It was all falling apart. Everything. What was she going to do, how could she provide for Teddy when her own co-workers didn't want to be near her?

"C'mon." Charlie stood behind her, a hand on the back of her chair. "I know that look. Let's go for a walk."

They stood outside moments later, bundled against the cold, walking aimlessly, eventually ending up by the little pond not far from the Burrow. They stood together, not speaking, their breath forming little clouds that bloomed into existence and faded.

"I heard what Percy said." Charlie didn't look at her but stared straight ahead. "Sorry."

"Thanks." Tonks nodded, then remembered something. She reached over and hit Charlie as hard as she could on his upper arm. "That's for calling me Nymphadora."

"Wasn't me."

"Yeah, it was."

"Nope, it was Father Christmas." He grinned at her. "So what do you want for Christmas, Nyphadora?"

She hit him on the arm again. "You're not Father Christmas this time."

"Fine, fine." He rubbed his arm. "Still didn't answer the question."

"I don't know. Not much left for me here."

He turned to her. "Ever think about Romania?"

"Are you barmy? I have a kid."

"So do some of the other keepers."

"What are you saying, Weasley?" She turned to face him. "All this time I hear next to nothing from you and then you turn up on my date..."

"It was over by that time."

"Shut up. You show up after my date, then you show up on Christmas and spring this on me out of the blue?"

"I've been thinking." He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Got a lot of time to think, being alone. Dragons are crap conversationalists. I can't be Remus. Won't try to be. But the happiest time was when I was with you. Even when I was married. It's obvious you aren't happy. Not much here for you now. How about a date, would you try that?"

"I think we're beyond the dating scene, Chuckles."

"Never know unless you try."

They both stood there, looking at each other. Tonks knew the easy thing to do would be to walk away, to go home with Teddy and go to work at whatever demeaning demotion the Aurors handed out, to go on more lousy dates her mum setup and to gracefully grow old. Gracefully grow old...

"Screw it." She threw her arms around him and kissed him. It wasn't the same as before, when they were kids, it was different. Different and still damned good.

XMAS – XMAS – XMAS – XMAS

Almost five year old Teddy ran into the Head Keeper's cabin, door still open behind him and threw off his stocking cap. "Mum! MUM!"

"Merlin, Ted, what's going on?" Tonks turned from the stove to look at her son. "What happened?"

"Charlie let me go see the Ironbellies!" He bounced on his toes. "It was brilliant! We flew on the broom and I saw Old Ogden, you know the one..."

"That is famous for burning down villages." Tonks shook her head. "I'm going to kill my husband."

A few moments later Charlie walked in, saw Tonks' face and winked at Teddy as he closed the door. "It was perfectly safe, Tonks. Manuel and Philippe were between us, at least a half a Quidditch pitch away. He was fine."

Tonks pulled out her wand and pointed it at him. "Don't give me that. You know the rules!"

"Speaking of rules, should you be up and about when you're due any day?" Charlie smiled at her and pointed to her rather large stomach. "Or does someone want to spend Christmas at hospital?"

Nyphadora Weasley had a problem. She let her husband get away with way, way too much. As she put her hands on her stomach, felt the moveent inside, she realized that in the end, though, it was worth it.


End file.
